Aug 10, 2026
West Virginia Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar
Timing derived from eBird data, 2016–2025 (sourced Aug 2026)
West Virginia's hummingbird year runs later and peaks harder than you might expect from a Mid-Atlantic state. Real arrivals don't show up until mid-April even in the lowlands, and the statewide peak doesn't land until the first week of September — nearly 35% of all eBird checklists reporting Ruby-throated that week, the single highest number we've measured anywhere in the region. Then it collapses fast: within a month, that number drops by more than two-thirds. Here's how the whole year actually unfolds, month by month.
The short answer: mid-April across most of the state, late April in the higher mountain counties, peaking in early September, nearly gone by early October.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| When do they arrive? | Mid-April across most of the state; late April in Monongalia and Wood counties |
| When should feeders go up? | Late March to the first week of April, as a buffer ahead of first arrivals |
| When do they nest? | May through July, statewide, with a possible second brood |
| When do they leave? | A sharp collapse through September; nearly all gone by early October |
| Any in winter? | Rufous is a genuine but thin regular visitor, mostly October through December; two confirmed accidentals (Black-chinned, Mexican Violetear) have also been documented |
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The whole year on one page
Arrival windows region by region, when to hang feeders in your part of the state, and when to watch for Rufous — printed small enough to tape inside the shed door.
Download the West Virginia cheat sheetOne page · PDF · free to print and share
West Virginia's Hummingbird Season at a Glance
One steady breeder with an unusually late, unusually high peak, and a thin but genuine winter visitor — here's the whole season in two pictures.
How often each species turns up on eBird checklists, week by week — statewide, 2016–2025. Source: eBird bar chart data (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), 2016–2025 (pulled Aug 2026).
Regions used below
We track five counties chosen to span West Virginia's real geographic range: Central — Kanawha County (Charleston); Eastern Panhandle — Berkeley County (Martinsburg); North-Central — Monongalia County (Morgantown); Potomac Highlands — Greenbrier County (Lewisburg); Ohio Valley — Wood County (Parkersburg). Statewide figures cover the whole state; the five counties show how much that average hides.
Regional Arrival and Departure Snapshot
| Region | First Arrivals | Reliably Common By |
|---|---|---|
| Statewide | Mid-April | Early May |
| Central — Kanawha (Charleston) | Mid-April | Late April |
| Eastern Panhandle — Berkeley (Martinsburg) | Mid-April | Early May |
| North-Central — Monongalia (Morgantown) | Late April | Mid-May |
| Potomac Highlands — Greenbrier (Lewisburg)* | Mid-April | Mid-April |
| Ohio Valley — Wood (Parkersburg) | Late April | Early May |
*Greenbrier's checklist volume is genuinely low (as few as 15 reports in some weeks) — the right geographic category for the mountain-elevation test, but treat its specific dates as less certain than the other counties. Windows derived from eBird bar chart data (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), 2016–2025.
One thing to know before you start
West Virginia's season peaks later and harder than most of the surrounding region. Statewide, the single busiest week of the entire year is the first week of September — not August, and definitely not summer — at nearly 35% of checklists reporting Ruby-throated. If your feeder still looks quiet in July, that's not behind schedule; the real crowd hasn't arrived yet.
January, February & March: The Deep Quiet
Ruby-throated sits at a flat, literal zero statewide across all three months. Rufous shows the faintest possible trace in January — the tail end of the previous fall's wave, not new arrivals — before disappearing entirely through February and March. If you're the type to plan ahead, this stretch is prep time: give your feeders a thorough off-season cleaning, check for cracks or degraded seals, and stock up on sugar before the real season starts.
April: The Real Season Begins, Late
April is genuinely quiet for most of the month — statewide reports barely register through the third week, sitting under 3%. Real signal doesn't build until the very last week of April, when statewide reports jump to nearly 9%. This is scout territory: the earliest, most adventurous males pushing into the state ahead of the main wave, arriving to establish territory before females follow a bit later. Pop's tip: put your feeder up by late March or the first week of April so it's ready before these first arrivals, especially in Kanawha, Berkeley, and Greenbrier counties, which tend to see activity a little earlier than Monongalia or Wood.
May: The Wave Arrives and Levels Off
May is West Virginia's real arrival month. Statewide reports jump from about 14% in the first week to over 15% by mid-month, then hold nearly flat through the rest of the month rather than continuing to climb. Unlike some states, West Virginia's spring wave lands fast and plateaus quickly — the real climb toward the season's peak doesn't resume until summer.
June: Nesting Season Settles In
Ruby-throated activity holds steady through June, in the 14–17% range statewide, as birds settle into nesting. Females become secretive around the nest during this stretch, which can make feeder activity look quieter even though the birds haven't gone anywhere. Nesting continues into July, with a possible second brood if conditions allow.
Why nesting season is the demanding one
There's a wrinkle specific to hummingbirds. Most female birds build up a temporary calcium store in their bones, called medullary bone, and draw on it to make eggshell. Hummingbirds have very little of it, so a laying female has less in reserve. Researchers have seen nesting females eating wood ash and other mineral-rich materials, which they think helps replace the calcium that goes into eggs. In one 1994 study, every bird seen eating ash was a female tending a nest.
It's part of why Pop's Nectar includes calcium and electrolytes rather than sugar alone. Nesting females need extra calcium during egg-laying, and plain sugar water has essentially none. Read more on the research behind it.
Shop Nectarlyte® 8 oz →July: Building Toward the Peak
Activity climbs steadily through July, from about 20% early in the month to over 25% by month's end, as broods fledge and juveniles join adults at feeders and flowers. This is a genuine, sustained ramp — West Virginia's real peak is still a month away, and it's a bigger one than most states see.
July's building numbers also mean more competition for nectar from ants and bees, right as feeder traffic is climbing.
Keep pests off without pesticides — hummingbirds rely on small insects for protein, so spraying near a feeder can cost them a food source, not just protect one.
AspenPerch®'s built-in ant moat blocks ants with a water barrier, and HummGuard® Nectar Tips keep bees and wasps out without changing anything for the birds.
August: Approaching the Peak
August keeps climbing hard, from about 28% early in the month to nearly 34% by the last week — already close to the eventual statewide peak. Birds are deep into hyperphagia, the intensive pre-migration feeding phase that can nearly double a hummingbird's fat reserves ahead of the trip south. Rufous also makes its first scattered appearance of the season this month, though only in ones and twos.
This is the month to be generous, not economical.
Birds fueling for a long flight need feeders topped up more often — the large 2lb Nectarlyte® powder or the Nectarade® liquid concentrate keeps you from running out mid-surge.
September: The Statewide Peak, Then the Fast Exit
September is West Virginia's busiest hummingbird month by a wide margin, and its shortest-lived one. Statewide reports peak at nearly 35% in the first week — the single highest number we've measured anywhere in the region — then collapse to about 12% by the last week. That's more than a two-thirds drop in a single month, as the bulk of the state's Ruby-throateds leave in a short, concentrated window.
October: The Last Stragglers
By October, Ruby-throated has all but left the state — statewide reports fall from about 4% in the first week to nearly zero by month's end, with only isolated stragglers anywhere. October is also when Rufous activity starts building toward its own thin winter peak. Pop's tip: keep your feeder up for two to three weeks after your last Ruby-throated sighting, and consider leaving at least one up into November or December if you'd like a shot at Rufous.
October is a departure month, but it's also a planting one — the timing works out well for both.
This is the planting month.
Sow now and native wildflowers get the cold, moist period most varieties need to bloom reliably next spring.
Shop the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend →November: Ruby-throated Gone, Rufous Building
Ruby-throated is completely absent statewide in November. Rufous continues its slow build from October, though it's genuinely thin here — most weeks statewide represent only a handful of checklists. If a hummingbird visits your feeder this month, there's a real chance it's a Rufous rather than a lingering Ruby-throated, simply because nothing else is around to confuse it with.
December: The Thin Season's High Point
Ruby-throated stays at zero. December is actually the single best month for Rufous in our entire dataset, even though "best" here still means a small trickle of reports rather than anything resembling a real wave. Genuine accidentals are possible too — West Virginia's own state records include documented sightings running into January, so a feeder left up through the cold isn't wasted effort.
The Year at a Glance
| Months | Statewide Activity |
|---|---|
| January – March | Flat zero — deep winter quiet, prep season |
| April | Quiet until the very last week, then first real scouts |
| May | Fast statewide arrival, then a plateau |
| June – July | Steady, then building; nesting through fledging |
| August | Sharp climb toward the statewide peak |
| September | Statewide peak (~35%) in week one, then a fast collapse |
| October – November | Ruby-throated gone; Rufous building |
| December | Thin season's high point; rare winter accidentals possible |
Frequently Asked Questions
When do hummingbirds come back to West Virginia?
Mid-April across most of the state; late April in Monongalia and Wood counties. Our data shows real, sustained arrivals don't begin until mid-to-late April even in the earliest regions — earlier feeder setup is a safety buffer, not a sign the birds are already here.
When do hummingbirds leave West Virginia?
Fast, and later than you might expect: the statewide peak actually lands in the first week of September, then reports drop more than two-thirds by the end of the month. Nearly all Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have left by early October.
How long do hummingbirds stay in West Virginia?
Roughly five and a half months for the typical West Virginia yard — arriving mid-April and mostly gone by early October. Add the fall-into-winter Rufous season, thin but genuine from October through December, and the practical "hummingbird watching" window stretches closer to nine months.
Why is my feeder in Morgantown still empty in late April?
Because Monongalia County is genuinely among the last parts of the state to see activity, along with Wood County in the Ohio Valley. Our data shows both counties running about a week behind Kanawha, Berkeley, and Greenbrier.
Should I keep a feeder up through a West Virginia winter?
If you want a shot at Rufous, yes — October through December is the window, though the numbers are genuinely thin here compared to some neighboring states. Genuine winter rarities are vanishingly unlikely in any given year, but West Virginia has real documented exceptions, including a Green Violet-eared Hummingbird that made state history at a Terra Alta feeder.
Why We Built This Calendar
Pop's Birding has been helping hummingbird lovers for three generations. One of the questions our customers ask most often is "When do hummingbirds arrive and leave my state?" — we built this calendar to give a direct, sourced answer, not a generic one. Most timing advice treats a state like West Virginia as roughly interchangeable with its neighbors, but the actual data shows something distinctive: an unusually late, unusually sharp September peak that doesn't match a simple "Mid-Atlantic timing" assumption. We wanted a calendar that reflects what's actually happening here, not a copy-paste from a nearby state's numbers.
How We Built This Calendar
We pulled eBird bar chart data for West Virginia statewide and for five counties chosen for geographic spread across the state's real climate range — Kanawha, Berkeley, Monongalia, Greenbrier, and Wood — covering 2016 through 2025, with “first arrivals” and “reliably common” (25% of a region's own seasonal peak, not a statewide one) read directly off the reporting rates. We're upfront about uneven data quality: Greenbrier's checklist volume runs as low as 15 reports in some weeks, well below the other four counties, and Kanawha's unusually high peak (nearly 59%, against a statewide 35%) may partly reflect concentrated local reporting activity rather than a genuinely different bird population — we've flagged both rather than presenting every county's numbers with equal confidence. The genuine finding worth calling out: West Virginia's September peak is both later and sharper than what we've measured in several neighboring states, which is original analysis from our own county-level data, not a rewrite of eBird's own bar charts.
Sources
- eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — West Virginia statewide and county-level (Kanawha, Berkeley, Monongalia, Greenbrier, Wood), 2016-2025. Source for all month-by-month seasonal figures and the regional arrival and peak-timing pattern.
- des Lauriers, J. R. (1994). Hummingbirds eating ashes. The Auk, 111(3), 755–756. Documents five nesting female hummingbirds eating wood ash; no males were seen doing so in that study.
- Adam, M. D., & des Lauriers, J. R. (1998). Observations of hummingbirds ingesting mineral-rich compounds. Journal of Field Ornithology, 69, 257–261. Source for hummingbirds' greatly reduced medullary bone and for the mineral-rich materials they eat.
- Werning, S. (2018). Medullary bone is phylogenetically widespread and its skeletal distribution varies by taxon. Journal of Ornithology, 159, 527–543. Source for medullary bone being confirmed in hummingbirds.
- Estades, C. F., Vukasovic, M. A., & Tomasevic, J. A. (2008). Giant Hummingbirds (Patagona gigas) ingest calcium-rich minerals. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 120(3), 651–653.
Know before they arrive
You don't have to keep this calendar taped to the fridge. Insider Birding Access members get seasonal notes timed to your region — when to have feeders out, what the birds are doing right now, and what's worth doing in your yard this season. We take the guesswork out of the calendar. Joining takes about thirty seconds, and there's 10% off your first order in it.
Join Insider Birding Access →Free to join. 10% off your first order.
Shop West Virginia's Hummingbird Favorites
Bethany Sloan has served as General Manager of Pop's Birding since 2010, continuing the legacy of her grandfather, William "Pops" Sloan, inventor of the Original Hummingbird Swing. A lifelong hummingbird enthusiast, educator, and independent researcher, she leads the company's educational content, including its 50-State Hummingbird Guide series, Regional Guide, Species Guide and Hummingbird Learning Center. Bethany combines scientific research, regional migration data, and more than 16 years of hands-on experience to create trusted educational resources for bird enthusiasts across North America.
